


Building Something Better

by choomchoom



Series: Endings & Beginnings [3]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, eat your landlord
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 01:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19121872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom
Summary: The original lessees get together to clean the house. They'd all love to never see each other again, but that feeling is trumped by the desire to get back their security deposits.





	Building Something Better

**Author's Note:**

> i can't listen to the mountain goats' song Done Bleeding and hear the line "things were even worse here than they sounded" without thinking about this house 
> 
> a spot of hope to kiss this AU goodbye

“The third bedroom is on the second floor, and the rest of that floor is kitchen and living area,” Nickel said as she led them up the stairs. Soundwave followed behind Megatron, making note of the water damage on the wallpaper and a nail sticking out from the front of one of the steps. About what he’d expected for the advertised rent price.

Megatron stepped into the master bedroom and Starscream followed. Soundwave stayed outside – he knew that if they took this place, he’d be in one of the closet-sized bedrooms pushed up against the garage on the first floor next to Drift, who was currently examining the kitchen.

Starscream walked out smirking, with Megatron’s hand ghosting over the small of his back. Soundwave wanted to make this work. He had misgivings about Starscream being part of it. Starscream had an uncanny ability to bring out the worst in Megatron.

“Questions?” asked Nickel as they all reconvened in the empty living space. The previous tenants had moved out completely, it seemed, so the space was bare. Fresh. Waiting for whatever could be imagined for it.

“Has anyone else expressed interest?” Starscream asked, narrowing his eyes at a painted-over hole in the wall.

“I have another group visiting this afternoon, actually,” Nickel said. “But you all were here first, and if your applications check out, it’s yours.”

There was an approximately fifty percent chance that Nickel was lying about the other group, but Soundwave didn’t particularly mind. Having this locked in as soon as possible was seeming more appealing by the second.

“May we have a moment to confer?” asked Megatron.

“’Course. Feel free to keep looking around, too. I’ll be downstairs,” Nickel said.

“I’m convinced,” Megatron said once she was out of earshot. “Thoughts?”

Megatron leading with that was a sign that Megatron was serious about this – providing his own opinion to the three of them before asking for their own was a sign that he hoped theirs matched. “I’m convinced,” Soundwave repeated.

“I don’t suppose we’ll find anything nicer,” Starscream said.

“Looks good to me.” Drift didn't sound like he particularly cared either way. 

Megatron smiled, which he didn’t often do.

Soundwave supposed that whenever things got hard here, he would look back on that smile and know that it was all worth what they were working toward. “This is going to be the start of something important,” Megatron said, and Soundwave, with his head, heart, and soul, believed him.

 

_Two years later._

Soundwave walked in the front door to a familiar racket. “Eat _shit_ ,” Ravage shrieked from the second floor.

“Wait for it, wait for it – _yeah_!”

“ _Fuck you,_ Rumble, you did _not_ just blue-shell me.”

Soundwave allowed himself a smile at the sound of his friends – his family – goofing off in front of the TV. He slid his shoes off and climbed the stairs, slipping off his windbreaker as he went.

“Hey dad,” Frenzy called from the floor in front of the couch. Rumble echoed her from the rocking chair that Soundwave and Drift had picked up off the street when they’d first moved in.

“Hey, Soundwave,” Ravage said. He hadn’t picked up the “dad” joke (was it a joke?) yet from the twins, and Soundwave suspected that he wouldn’t. He was a little bit older, even if he was just as lacking in useful authority figures as the other two. “Your landlord stopped by. Wants to do a walkthrough, whatever that means.”

Soundwave stopped halfway to the kitchen. “What?”

“Something about subletters and wanting to check thoroughly for damages before she’ll renew the lease,” Ravage continued. “Ha! HA! Take THAT.” Familiar victory music from the TV accompanied the last.

“Did she say when?”

“Tomorrow,” Ravage said, completely nonchalantly.

Soundwave turned on his heel and poked his head in front of the TV. _“Tomorrow?”_

“Yeah. Is that a big deal?” Ravage’s eyes weren’t even on him.

Soundwave rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, exasperated at Ravage’s incompetence even as he was somewhat glad of it. Ravage was barely nineteen and the extent to which he was still sheltered from Landlord Bullshit was something Soundwave considered a victory.

He sent a quick text to Nickel to confirm the time and make sure that it was okay that the remaining furniture and personal belongings be left in their places. Nickel replied that no, it wasn’t – she wanted to do a proper inspection like she should have done before allowing the house to be turned over to an almost entirely new set of people in the first place. She suggested putting said belongings in the garage. She was also kind enough to offer a not insubstantial raise in the rent if he would rather skip it. _Landlords._

Soundwave shut his eyes, bemoaned his fate to the screeches of his friends and the music of Mario Kart in the background, and then sent out a few more texts. Starscream still had plenty of stuff here that he’d need to grab at some point, and Drift still owned most of the furniture in Ravage’s room. It was already dark outside, so getting everything cleaned and moving all the furniture in time for the walkthrough would make for a long day.

Soundwave took one look at the living room, which was currently covered in McDonalds packaging and hadn’t been vacuumed in, uh, a while, and the kitchen, where the sink was so full of dirty dishes that the dishes had also made their way to the counters on either side, and got started on the latter.

**

Megatron was moving the couches out of the living area so he could vacuum when Soundwave walked upstairs the next morning. The McDonalds wrappers had been picked up, but now the kitchen trash was overflowing. Suddenly doing the dishes last night had felt woefully inadequate.

“Is Ravage sleeping downstairs?” Megatron asked once he’d cleared off space to vacuum.

Soundwave checked the clock on the stove. “Probably. But he needs to be getting up for work anyway.”

Megatron shrugged and started the vacuum while Soundwave went to pour himself a bowl of cereal. He ate and washed the bowl in the time it took Megatron to vacuum, then he helped Megatron move the TV and its stand onto the tile kitchen floor so he could get at the carpet underneath.

“Why do you still wear that?” Megatron asked, indicating Soundwave’s Decepticon patch with an Xbox controller that he was wrapping up in its cord.

Soundwave looked down at the badge, like he’d done several times a day when he’d first ironed it on – to make sure it was still there, to remind himself what he was doing here, to remember how proud of it he was. He’d put it on his favorite hoodie, back in the day, and now it was starting to get threadbare. “It reminds me of what I want. As it was intended,” Soundwave said. He unplugged the Xbox from the wall and Megatron placed the controllers on top of it.

“It’s meant a lot of things since then,” Megatron said.

“Not to me. To me, the meaning’s never changed.”

He doorbell rang then, and Soundwave heard Ravage’s door open downstairs to answer it. Soundwave took the excuse and made his way downstairs anyway.

“Hi Drift.” Ravage’s voice was confused, echoing Soundwave’s thoughts. He had expected a text from Drift letting him know whether Ravage could keep his furniture, not for him to show up in person. Soundwave’s first guess would have been that he’d want to have seen the back of this place forever.

“Hello,” Soundwave said from the stairs. “Here to help clean?”

“I would really like my security deposit back,” Drift said. Something thunked to the ground upstairs and Drift inclined his head. “Is he here?”

Ravage ducked back into his room and emerged pinning his nametag to his uniform. “Sorry I can’t help,” he said, not sounding sorry at all and tossing the slightest of half-smiles at Soundwave on his way out the door.

Drift was frowning, and Soundwave realized that Ravage had ignored him completely as he’d left. “Are you looking to take any of the things you left here?” Soundwave asked.

“Nah. I don’t think I’ll need it,” Drift said.

“Ravage will appreciate that.”

Drift looked at Soundwave like he’d said something more significant than he had. “Where can I help?” he asked.

“We can start by getting some of the furniture from these rooms out to the garage.”

_“Why?”_

“Landlords.”

They’d moved most of the furniture from Soundwave’s room by the time Starscream showed up. Unlike Drift, he didn’t bother to knock – he walked right through the door that Ravage had left unlocked.

His eyes settled on Drift first. “Hi,” he said, something acidic about it. Then there was a crash from upstairs followed by a muttered curse from Megatron and Starscream breezed upstairs without acknowledging Soundwave.

“Should we let them be alone together?” Drift asked quietly as they each picked up one side of Drift’s – now Ravage’s – dresser.

“We’ve let them be alone together plenty in the past,” Soundwave replied.

Drift flinched at that. That was strange. It had used to be nigh impossible to get an emotional reaction of any kind out of him, especially one that wasn’t anger. This new openness was a good look for him.

“Starscream can make his own choices,” Soundwave continued, but he was listening for any sound from upstairs, and he could tell Drift was too. They didn’t talk much as they moved the rest of the furniture.

Soundwave remembered the night he’d found out about Drift’s plan to move out, back in December. Drift had been waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs when he’d gotten home from a DJ-ing shift at nearly three in the morning. He’d had his hands shoved in pockets, like he’d been bracing himself for something. Soundwave remembered wondering how long he’d been waiting there.

“Rav is looking for a place to stay, right?” was what he’d led with. Soundwave had assumed that Drift had heard of a place through his network – hadn’t imagined that the place he was referring to was his own room. Ravage had needed to get out of his parents’ house, though, desperately, and Soundwave had always had what he’d thought was a pipe dream of all the kids he looked out for moving in with him. That barely took the edge off of the sense that Drift’s leaving meant that the house, their grassroots house that could have been the start of something important, was a failure.

Soundwave had gotten over that. Well, mostly. He was happy for Drift – it was obvious how much happier Drift was these days. But part of Soundwave would always regret that the possibility of building something here hadn’t panned out in the way they’d intended.

Drift didn’t flinch when the screaming actually started. He met Soundwave’s eyes, set down his half of the desk they were carrying, and led the way upstairs.

“You cannot blame me for everything that’s gone wrong! Where does it stop? Where do you take some – ANY responsibility?”

Starscream had started yelling first, but from his words, Soundwave suspected that Megatron had fully intended for it to escalate to thiis. They were far enough up the stairs when Megatron replied to hear it even though he, at least, was using his indoor voice. “At least I don’t drop the ball and _run_ at the first sign of any challenge. If you were less of a coward, maybe we could have accomplished all of our goals by now.”

“That is _so far_ from an answer! To my question!” Starscream screeched as Drift and Soundwave emerged on the landing.

“Hey guys, we need the vacuum downstairs, do you think you’re done with it?” Drift asked, giving no sign of how hard he must be fighting to keep the pleasant, neutral expression on his face.

“Stay out of this.” Megatron’s eyes didn’t deviate from Starscream, who glared back.

“I hear you, but –”

“Drift, this is none of your business.”

Drift’s pleasant smile didn’t recede an inch. “I hear you, but we’ve had this conversation before.”

Now Megatron oriented on Drift and Soundwave. His expression reluctantly softened from a snarl to a glare after a moment. “Can one of you tell him that he can’t take my books?”

“ _One book_. I want _one book._ I bought it and it’s mine.”

“It was a gift.”

“Debatable!”

Megatron’s anger hadn’t seemed to abate, but he threw his hands up and walked toward the kitchen. “Fine.”

Starscream stalked into the bedroom and came out carrying several books, which Soundwave didn’t comment on even as he watched Starscream furtively check that Megatron’s back was to him as he brought them downstairs.

“Do you still have bins in the closet, for the kitchen stuff?” Drift asked Soundwave, as if none of that had just happened. For a minute it was eighteen months ago, and it felt like if they pretended that that everything was fine, everything would be fine.

It seemed so silly in hindsight, now that this might really be the last time that they had to do this. “We do,” Soundwave said. Drift’s expression was more serious than the conversation warranted and Soundwave wondered if he wasn’t thinking along similar lines.

Drift walked over to the pantry and Soundwave walked back downstairs, intending to finish clearing out the two downstairs rooms and make space in the garage for the furniture from the second floor.

Starscream was smoking a cigarette on the porch with the door hanging open. He half-turned to check who was on the stairs and then turned back around without acknowledging Soundwave.  

When Starscream had moved out, Soundwave had gotten a text from him the next evening simply asking if Megatron was home. Soundwave had replied that he wasn’t, and Starscream had come by while Soundwave was in his room Facetiming with Cosmos. He’d left his key on the kitchen table on the way out along with a check for his portion of the next month’s rent. They hadn’t spoken since.

Soundwave stepped outside and sat down on the porch next to him.

“He ask you to come to spy on me?” Starscream asked without even looking in Soundwave’s direction.

“I don’t take orders from him,” Soundwave said. “And you’d be interested to know that of all of you, he’s the only one who I’ve asked to leave this place.”

That got him Starscream’s attention, as he’d expected. He didn’t say anything, though, just offered Soundwave a cigarette from his pack.

“I bet you’re glad to see the back of us,” Starscream said after a while.

“Same to you,” replied Soundwave. At that, Starscream actually smiled.

“If you want to leave –” Soundwave started to offer.

Starscream dropped the butt of his cigarette and snuffed it under his shoe. “Nah, I’ve still got shit upstairs,” he said. “Let’s get this over with.”

Moving the upstairs furniture and the remainder of Starscream and Megatron’s things into the garage and Starscream’s car was a tense, quiet affair. It was running close to the time limit by the time Soundwave got out the broom and dustpan while Megatron packed away some last things in the bedroom and Starscream and Drift scrubbed down the kitchen. After five hours, the place looked almost exactly like it had the first time they’d seen it – bare, scuffed, filled with nothing but possibility.

Soundwave took Nickel around when she showed up, leaving the other three awkwardly standing around in the empty kitchen. He showed her the two downstairs bedrooms, the one that Ravage could finally feel was a home, and the one that was the only part of this place that would stay the same. He led her up the stairs, where Megatron had long ago hammered in the sticking-out nail and Nickel didn’t comment on the newly warped wall tiling from a spilled beer.

“The gang’s all here,” Nickel said, surveying the group. She investigated the kitchen and then peeked into the master bedroom. “What the hell happened to the wall in here?” she asked.

Soundwave went to look over her shoulder – he hadn’t even seen the inside of the bedroom. There was a dent in the wall that looked like someone had tried to punch through it.

“Accident. From moving furniture,” Starscream said from the kitchen, his voice too smooth, too practiced, for him to be telling the truth. “I’d understand if you ding us for it.”

“If the new tenants are alright with it, I won’t,” she said. She stepped back out of the room. “Everything looks alright. I’ve got the correct forwarding addresses for you all?” At nods from the group, she continued. “Checks will be in the mail within a week.” She turned to Soundwave and handed him a packet of paper. “Next year’s lease. Have the rest of the new tenants sign it and mail it to my office by the fifth.”

“Absolutely,” Soundwave said, frozen for a moment with the realization that he was holding the key to everything the house could still become.

“Normally at this point I’d say thanks for being such great tenants,” Nickel continued. “But you all have actually been a real nightmare to work with. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.”

None of them knew what to say to that, and the floor was silent until Nickel had shut the door after herself.

“Time to move it all back in,” Drift eventually said.

Setting the house back up took much less time than it had taken to get everything cleared out and cleaned. The master bedroom furniture was staying in the garage for now while Megatron figured out his own living situation. Ravage’s room was easy, since he’d essentially been living out of a suitcase for the past six months anyway. Soundwave’s room was a disaster, with all of his things having been haphazardly shoved into bags at some point during the day, but that felt inconsequential as Soundwave stepped out onto the porch to see everyone off.

“Want a ride?” Starscream asked, eyes on Drift and Drift alone.

“Huh? Oh, you don’t have to –”

Starscream rolled his eyes. “Come on.” He tossed an afterthought of a wave in Soundwave’s direction and didn’t acknowledge Megatron at all.

“Good luck,” Drift said as he followed, eyes bouncing between the both of them. He flicked a small smile at Soundwave before following Starscream the rest of the way to his car.

Megatron stood on the porch with Soundwave long enough to watch them drive away. “I don’t get it,” Megatron said. “How do you do it? All of you. How do you move on? How do you just live?”

Soundwave thought of the extra couch he planned to put in the living area, the ways he wanted to make this home a haven for the people who lived there and others who needed it. He thought of everything he’d tried to make this house a welcoming place for their community despite the rest of them, and he thought of his friends. “We’ve each found a reason to.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
